Markus Klinko and Indrani/7-15-09/Media
Concept In 2009, Sanrio, the company behind the Hello Kitty brand contacted Markus and Indrani's agent about shooting an image for their 35th anniversary campagin. Markus recalled that "They wanted to do a symbolic image a celebrity and I thought it was very boring and had the spontaneous idea: why don't we do this with Lady Gaga?" Asked about the cover of "Icons" and the concept behind the photograph, Markus explained that they "thought it would be really cool to have that golden star begind her head, a mix of the occult and the pop star: the high priestess of pop." Indrani recalled that at that time "they'd never met Gaga before and were nervous. Most celebrities want to come across pretty; Gaga wants to create something exciting. She loved our ideas and wanted to go further. I was going to give her big eyes in post-production but she said, "Why don't we do it in reality?" So we painted those big eyes onto her eyelids. Our stylist, GK Reid, brought the crystal dress from a London designer; it probably weighed 200 pounds. She's such a trouper!" Three Apples: Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Celebration The duo shot four pictures of Gaga which were included in the "Three Apples: Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Celebration". The company celebrated 35 years with 80 contemporary artists who reinterpreted Hello Kitty at Culver City's Royal/T art space from October 23 to November 15, 2009. The event curated by Jamie Rivadeneira, owner of JapanLA, a Los Angeles boutique that specializes in "cute" Japanese and American products. Three Apples Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Celebration poster.jpg Three Apples Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Celebration flyer.jpg Three Apples Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Celebration 001.jpg Books BOG 00A.png|Book of Gaga Icons by Markus Klinko and Indrani cover.jpg|Icons (2012) Icons by Markus Klinko and Indrani 001.jpg Icons by Markus Klinko and Indrani 002.jpg Icons by Markus Klinko and Indrani 003.jpg :Icons was released on August 11, 2012 by Running Press. The book have 244 pages with five photographs from the photoshoot with Lady Gaga. They also included an introduction paragraph: ::The Lady Gaga shoot instantly became a Markus and Indrani favorite. They were commissioned by Sanrio to produce a photo campaign for the thirty-fifth anniversary celebration of Hello Kitty. Markus suggested they work with Lady Gaga and of course Sanrio loved the idea. This shoot was central to one of the episodes of Double Exposure and thus garnered a great deal of media attention. The fact that it was filmed for television also made it uniquely challenging. Indrani had located a Masonic temple for the shoot. "I wanted to work with mystical symbolism to illustrate Gaga's extraordinary powers." I twas the best possible setting for the "high priestess of pop", as Markus called her, but space was limited and they needed to plan each shot in detail ahead of time. Lady Gaga worked closely with GK during the shoot, and the stylist truly outdid himself with each look topping the last, culminating in an amazing work-of-art dress made up of Hello Kitty stuffed animals. The star was game for everything, literally doing the shoot with her eyes closed when it was time to paint giant Hello Kitty eyes over her closed lids. Markus says, "Lady Gaga has been one of the most extraordinary people to photograph because she's so creative and so open to going all the way with our ideas. She's a very powerful figure, like a goddess-larger than life." The end of the shoot was memorable too. Indrani recalls, "When it was over we dressed Markus in the Hello Kitty dress and Lady Gaga kissed him on the lips, but our reality TV cameras missed that perfect moment." Magazines and Newspapers Machina Magazine (2010).jpg|'Machina' (Apr, 2010) Musikexpress Germany June 2010 cover.jpg|'Musikexpress' (Jun, 2010) Hello Kitty Fashion Magazine - UK (Summer Edition, 2011).JPG|'Hello Kitty' - Summer Edition (2011) TheObserver-FashionGoesGaga.jpg|[[The Guardian (newspaper)|'TheObserver']] (Mar 20, 2011) Photo France No 494 November 2012 cover.jpg|'Photo' # 494 (Nov, 2012)